Depending on whose study you read, early childhood education programs either endow crucial benefits on children from high-need backgrounds or provide "very few impacts" over the long haul. Thousand...

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Dueling studies

Depending on whose study you read, early childhood education programs either endow crucial benefits on children from high-need backgrounds or provide "very few impacts" over the long haul. Thousands of low-income and second-language students attend early childhood programs in San Joaquin County. Leaders of those programs say early childhood education is vital to a better future for the region.

STOCKTON - As a kindergarten teacher last year in San Diego, Danielle Munro says she could tell right away.

Without having to ask, she could always guess which children had attended preschool and which ones hadn't.

The preschool alums, she said, were prepared for "the daily routines, following directions, letter recognition and social interactions." The children who hadn't attended preschool often weren't.

Now back in her hometown of Stockton, the 29-year-old Munro teaches in the First 5 San Joaquin preschool program at Lincoln Elementary. About 17,000 very young children and their families in San Joaquin County are served by First 5 school readiness and preschool programs.

Last week, First 5 San Joaquin released a five-year study of the children it serves, research that provides support for those who believe early childhood programs provide major benefits. The report found the First 5 programs - which target those from low-income and second-language backgrounds - not only prepare children for the increased academic rigor of kindergarten but also boost the emotional and social skills of those who are served.

"If you don't have (the behavioral skills), you're never going to get to that achievement part," First 5 Commissioner Gary Dei Rossi said at the study's unveiling last week. "To see that you can have an effect, especially for low-income kids, is really significant. I think some of the violence we're seeing in society, we could stop that if we just invested early."

First 5 San Joaquin provides school readiness programs to children ages 0-2 and their families, as well as preschool to children ages 3-5. A San Francisco-based research firm was engaged by First 5 to study the short- and long-term benefits to children from both groups from 2007 to 2012.

In one portion of the study, the academic performance of First 5 children was compared to a group of students who did not attend First 5 programs. Demographically, more First 5 attendees were from low-income or second-language backgrounds than was the case for the non-First 5 children.

Yet it was the third-graders attending the First 5 programs who tended to perform better on standardized math and English tests. Similarly, 86 percent of the First 5 English learners who took the California English Language Development Test scored "intermediate" or better - nine percentage points better than the children from the comparison group. Additionally, the data indicate parents become more involved in their children's schooling if their children are in the First 5 programs.

Lani Schiff-Ross, the executive director of First 5 San Joaquin, said the study was conducted "to see if the impact and the investments in preschool and First 5 were effective ... and to see what we can learn from this."

In addition to the encouraging academic results, the programs appear to provide emotional, behavioral and health benefits. Participating families are referred for medical, dental and vision care, and among the lessons learned by the children is the need for frequent hand-washing. That means fewer germs are delivered home by grubby toddlers to be spread among entire families.

Lincoln Elementary operates morning and afternoon preschool sessions, three hours each with 20 children and two teachers. In the mornings, Munro is the lead teacher with an assist from Lindsey Williams. The two swap roles for the afternoon session. Help sometimes is provided by Lincoln High students who are studying child development.

The classroom is packed with floor puzzles, posters teaching the alphabet and colors, and a large terrarium that is home to a rather hefty turtle. Friday morning was all about Dr. Seuss. Munro showed the children how to make a tall red and white hat. The treat for the morning was of the same color scheme, a combination of strawberries and marshmallows.

"They're learning," said Gianna Cummins, whose 4-year-old son, Giancarlo, attends a Lincoln Unified First 5 preschool. "They're learning the skill of friendship. You can't learn that from sitting your child in front of the TV."

Schiff-Ross said First 5 plans to extend its research for one more year to get additional data. Asked if there was any chance of tracking First 5 alums through high school graduation, she said, "If we could find some funding, we would actually love that."